Flight
by The Rose Blue Prince
Summary: Edward learns how to fly with the help of Alphonse. [A One-Shot/side story for my other fic The Chimera City.] [Featuring Brotherly!AlEd.]


**A/N: **Hey guys! Here's something special for my awesome readers! ;D This is an alternate scenario of how Ed learned how to fly—consider it a deleted scene if you may. This isn't how it will happen in TCC (which will happen at around chapter seven or so), but this _was _how it originally was going to be.

**NOTICE: **If you haven't read TCC, this probably won't make sense, so I suggest going to R&R that first! ;3 (Also this technically might contain /a/ spoiler for it, but whatever. XD) ALSO, _lotrprincess_ brought up a good point in her review; flight shouldn't be possible for Ed (as of chapter 5 in TCC), but things change. So just hang in there, 'kay? I'm not gonna spoil stuff for you all. XD

I hope you enjoy it! :D

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**Flight**

**A Side Story for The Chimera City: Central HQ**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.

A Fullmetal Alchemist FanFiction By: The Rose Blue Prince

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Al was currently standing in the Colonel's office, staring idly out the many windows at the city that lay below on the other side of the glass. He had been doing this same exact thing for around an hour now, and Alphonse was quite honestly beginning to get extremely tired of the quiet, empty streets of the normally bustling Central.

The Colonel along with his team had left the office well over an hour ago, muttering something about getting something to eat, and thus leaving Alphonse alone with his chimerafied-brother in the droll office. The two Elrics had exchanged some light conversation about frivolous things for a bit, but Ed had been quick to tire of that, and instead had picked up a random book from one of Mustang's shelves and began reading the tome.

Al was certain that Edward wasn't really absorbing the words on the page, however. After he'd found out he was a chimera, the elder Elric hadn't been quite himself—namely, loud and fiery. Instead, Ed was quiet and withdrawn as he 'read' the book, most likely stewing over his own thoughts.

The armor-bound boy was worried about Edward, of course, but whenever he'd try to ask him about it or tell him what he was feeling; Ed would simply act like he hadn't heard him.

That cold, indifferent action in and of itself was frightening for Alphonse, especially considering that Ed would normally console with anything in his brother, no matter how terrible. They were all they had left, after all.

So, as Al's soul fire eyes gazed down at the silent city below him, they weren't really looking. Instead, the fourteen year old was preoccupied with thinking up ways to make his older brother feel better, or at least distract him from thinking about what had happened to him.

Thus far he hadn't been very successful, each idea he had being rejected and squashed down before Al could really think it over too much. Alphonse just couldn't seem to think of anything that would work, anything that would manage to break through Edward's stubborn and icy outer shell that he had built around himself.

Al was actually about to give up formulating plans and instead walk back to his brother and force him out of his withdrawn state when, with the force of a train he and Ed so often rode in, an idea slammed into him.

And it was a brilliant idea.

Looking over his steel shoulder at Edward, who still hadn't moved from his stagnate position on Mustang's couch reading, Alphonse would have smirked then if he could've.

This was going to work (_it has to work_), he knew.

Turning away from the windows so he could face Ed, Alphonse asked, "Hey, Ed, can you come over here for a second?"

Edward stiffened when Al's metallic voice sliced through the office's previous still atmosphere, but relaxed when he realized that it was just his brother calling him over. Closing his eyes for a moment he reasoned that seeing what Alphonse wanted couldn't be too bad a thing. Ed then set the book down on the couch and began to head over toward Al as he replied, "Yeah, sure, Al. What do you want?"

Edward strode across the room and reached his younger brother quickly. Once he was standing right next to him, the blond looked up at the armor questioningly, when, suddenly, Alphonse snatched up Ed and easily lifted the chimera up off of the floor and held him above his head. Ed, in response, began to struggle in his brother's hold as he looked down in shock at Al, spluttering, "A-Alphonse?! What are you doing?!"

Al blatantly ignored Edward's well-reasoned question and simply replied in a dead serious tone, "I want you to fly."

Ed halted abruptly in his struggling, then, and met Alphonse's red, soul fire eyes with his own golden ones for a moment. Then, the elder Elric looked away from his brother in something akin to embarrassment and quietly muttered, "…I can't."

Alphonse's steel arms didn't move to lower his brother, despite his slight surprise at Ed's unexpected embarrassment and his less than stellar response. Why would Ed be embarrassed about not being able to fly? Sure, he was technically half-bird now, but no one expected him to be able to do something that no man, not even the mythical Icarus, had ever successfully accomplished. Al just wanted to see if Edward would be able to do it, he didn't mean to embarrass him…

Maybe it was a bird thing…?

Before Alphonse could delve into the matter further, however, he instead came out of his revere and said in a voice he knew Edward couldn't say no to, "Can you at least try?"

In response to Al's begging tone, Ed shifted his gaze back to meet his brother's, and after a moment of hesitation, the blond sighed and said, somewhat uncertainly, "I guess it couldn't hurt to try…"

Smiling on the inside, then, Al watched in something akin to wonderment as Ed slowly unfurled his new wings. The feathered appendages continued to extend until they were ramrod straight over Edward's back, which was now horizontal to the ground from Alphonse holding him over up from the floor.

That done, Ed took a deep breath, and closed his eyes as he mentally prepared himself for what he was about to attempt. He was technically half-bird now, so this whole flying thing should be like a second nature to him, right?

After a moment, Ed opened his eyes again and began to move his wings up and down in jerky, unpracticed motions, all the while Alphonse maintained a firm grip on Ed's sides so he didn't fall.

This routine went on for a little bit, but it was becoming more and more glaringly obvious that Edward was fast to tire from exercising the new muscles required to induce flight. However, Al wasn't ready to let his brother back down yet. He knew that the elder Elric could do it; his brother wasn't one to just quit and give up once things got tough, after all.

Suddenly, inspiration struck in Al, and he said apologetically, "Sorry about this, Ed."

Before Edward could respond to that potentially foreboding statement, the blond suddenly found himself looking at the ceiling, his body having been thrown into the air. The previous support of Alphonse gone from beneath him, Ed's thoughts picked up speed until they reached hyper drive and his breathing quickened.

The ingrained human fear of, '_I'm dead if I fall' _activated in Ed's mind, then, and cold, liquid adrenalin flooded into his veins. Less than a second after that fear kicked in, Ed realized that if he didn't manage to somehow fly, _now, _he may not die but he would certainly land quite painfully on the less than comfortable floor of Mustang's office.

Once his brain had recognized the danger, the animal recently introduced to Edward's body pushed itself forcefully to the front of his mind, and Edward's already startling gold eyes melted into an even more piercing shade of yellow.

Flipping around in the air so quickly he appeared to be only a blur of white and red to any who cared to look, the chimera then took in the sight of the fast-approaching floor. Before he could smash into it and become and Ed-cake, however, the owl chimera snapped his white wings open and flapped them downward rapidly, successfully avoiding the would-have-been-painful landing.

Now relived that the threat had been evaded, chimera didn't remember until it was too late that he was _inside, _and therefore there was a ceiling above him. His head then slammed into the relatively low ceiling of the Colonel's office, and the animal, shocked from the blow, receded back into a corner of Ed's mind and his eyes faded back to their usual gold. Simultaneously Edward's wings seized up from the rough impact, locking at his sides and sending him falling from the air.

Luckily for Ed, Alphonse had seen something like this coming, and was already standing under where Ed had previously been airborne. Arms held out expectantly, Al chuckled when a confused and slightly peeved Edward dropped into his arms with a thump.

The blond rubbed his sore head for a moment, muttering, "Damn ceiling…"

Suddenly, Ed cut off his complaints aimed at the innocent ceiling and slowly lowered his hand from his head as he realized something. Blinking, he looked over at his shoulder at the two white feathered wings sprouting from his back and whispered in astonishment, "I… I did it…"

Edward's face split into a triumphant grin and he pumped a fist in the air as he then proceeded to whoop out happily, "I did it! Yeah!"

Alphonse looked down at the ecstatic teen in his arms in amusement for a moment before saying with an unseen smile, "I told you that you could do it, Brother."

Ed, then, paused in the victory dance he was doing and smiled slightly up at Al, "Yeah. Yeah you did."

Then, Ed screwed up his face and his wings began to rise up from their previous resting place at his back. Al, wondering what his brother was doing, stayed still until he was encompassed in an awkward, feathery wing-hug of sorts. Just as soon as the feathers surrounded him, however, they were gone, set back in their resting place against Ed's back.

Al looked at his brother for a moment, a bit shocked at the outward display of affection he had just received from the normally stoic and cold Edward Elric.

However, Alphonse opted for simply shrugging of his questions about why Ed had done it and simply smiled a hidden smile. Alphonse had succeeded in making distracting Ed and making him feel better, and that's what counted.

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**A/N: **Did you like it? I hope you did! Comment if you please, I'd love to know what you think about this. I enjoyed writing this. A lot. XD

Also, my dyslexia has been acting up lately, so if you see anything trippy in here please tell me so I can fix it. xP

Now I'm off to work on chapter six of TCC~.

See you all next time! ;D


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